


Valkyrie

by Whedonista93



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-08
Updated: 2017-07-08
Packaged: 2018-11-29 06:48:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,768
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11435409
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Whedonista93/pseuds/Whedonista93
Summary: Mom –Ever think to just mention we’re Valkyrie?- D





	Valkyrie

**Author's Note:**

> As always, the deepest of bows to aggiepuff for feeding my plot bunnies then grooming them into something presentable. ;)
> 
> Rated T for language and a bit of canon-type violence.
> 
> Translation for the children's song Darcy songs is at the end.

“Hold up… I thought Dr. Foster was your main squeeze?” Tony squinted in confusion at Thor.

 

Thor cocked his head at Tony in confusion. “Squeeze?”

 

Tony gestured vaguely. “Lady love, or whatever the hell archaic phrase you use.” 

Thor tightened his arm around Foster’s intern. “You were mistaken, Man of Iron. I have pledged to shield Lady Jane, to be her friend, but my heart is pledged to Lady Darcy.”

 

“Shield sister, lady of lightning, mate of his soul, etcetera,” Jane offered, unbothered, without looking up from the notes she was scratching out on a napkin.

 

Tony just felt more confused.

 

Darcy obviously noticed and grinned impishly, blue eyes shining. “I tazed him.”

 

“Right.” Tony nodded. “You tazed the god of thunder. And it worked.”

 

“Yup.”

 

“Cool. What else do you do?” Tony raised an eyebrow in challenge.

 

Darcy raised one right back and held out her hand. “Darcy Lewis, Scientist Wrangler Extraordinaire.”

 

Pepper chose that moment to step forward and steal Tony’s handshake. “Pepper Potts, CEO of Stark Industries. How would you like a job?”

 

Darcy shrugged. “As long as Janie still gets her lab.”

 

Pepper smiled brightly. “Of course.”

* * *

Bryn smiled back genuinely at the bright smile and blue eyes on her computer screen. “Hello dear.”

 

Darcy’s smile grew. “Hi Mom!”

 

“It’s been too long.”

 

“Yeah… sorry. Space observatory in the boonies, alien invasions, yadda, yadda, yadda….”

 

Bryn frowned. “Darcy…”

 

Darcy shook her head firmly. “A lot of it is classified.”

 

“Did you fight?”

 

“Not the way you’re thinking. It’s not… I’m not ready to show that yet.”

 

A deep breath. “What can you tell me?”

 

“I took an internship that landed me in the ass-end of New Mexico. I tazed the alien-slash-god of thunder and now I’m dating him. And there have been a few alien invasions which I may or may not have been involved in. Now I work for Stark Industries – Science Wrangler Extraordinaire and Queen of the Lab Minions – that is actually my official job title because Tony Stark is a child and Pepper Potts is a BAMF. ”

 

“God of… Thor.”

 

“Yeah. That one.”

 

Silence.

 

“Mom?”

 

Bryn knew the color had drained from her face, knew she must look a sight, but she couldn’t open her mouth.

 

“Mom?!” Darcy repeated, louder.

 

Bryn shook it off. “Sorry dear… that’s… I’m glad you’re alright. And happy.”

 

“Why don’t I believe you?”

 

“Just… I’m sorry dear. I am so happy for you. I promise. I have to go. But… don’t be a stranger so long this time?”

 

“I promise.”

* * *

Loki wandered past the common kitchen, where Darcy was baking and singing, intent on the balcony and relaxing with a book. He froze when the words of the song and the cadence of Darcy’s voice reached his ears.

“ _ Bake kake søte,  _

_ dyppe den i fløte. _

_ Først i sukker - så i vann, _

_ så kommer det en gammal mann - _

_ som vil kaka prikke _

_ med ei lita gullstikke _ ”

 

He felt Thor come up beside him and looked up to see the blonde’s face solemn for once.

 

Loki spoke before he even thought about what he was saying. “She reminds me of her, sometimes.”

 

“Aye, brother… I have found myself thinking the same, on occasion,” Thor responded.

 

Darcy happened to look up and see them. She offered a smile. “Heya studlies! Come try this!”

 

Both men moved forward without thought of protest.

 

“Where did you learn that song, Lady Darcy?” Loki asked as he settled on a stool, setting his book aside.

 

“Hmm? Oh! My mom used to sing it. Before she left, when I was really little. I only kinda remembered it. Then when I got older and got back in touch with her, I asked her about it. It’s Norse, isn’t it?”

 

Thor smiled. “Aye. An old friend of ours was very fond of it. She sang it often.”

 

“At the most inappropriate times.” Loki grinned, despite himself.

 

“Was she a baker or something?” Darcy asked.

 

“Brynja?” Loki looked up, almost startled. “By the Norns, no. The woman could burn water. Brynja was a Valkyrie.”

 

“Okay… so singing children’s songs inappropriately fits in where?”

 

Thor grinned broadly. “During battle.” 

 

“At criminal executions,” Loki added.

 

“Training new recruits… when we would rouse them in the midst of the night,” Thor chuckled.

 

“At her younger brother’s wedding.” Loki almost looked fond.

 

Darcy grinned at them both. “Sounds like my kind of gal… what’d you say her name was?”

 

“Brynja. You often remind me of her.” Loki smiled sadly before retrieving his book and retreating to the balcony.

 

Darcy froze, staring at his back, mouthing the name.

 

Thor watched him go, all humor gone. “He loved her very much. Had she been around… I doubt the Mad Titan ever would have come near Loki… He was stronger, with her by his side.”

 

“What happened to her?” Darcy gently prodded after barely recovering her shock in time for him to turn back to her.

 

“She… she is gone.”

 

“Tell me more about her?”

 

Thor smiled again, bittersweet thing that it was. “She could never settle for just being one thing, for just being a Valkyrie. She was an artist and a smith and, oh, my Darcy, that you could have seen her dance…”

* * *

Two months after her brief video chat with Darcy, Bryn stared at her open e-mail account and debated her options.

 

**Mom –**

**Ever think to just mention we’re Valkyrie?**

**\- D**

 

Frigga laid a hand on her shoulder. “A loophole… that is what you have been looking for all these centuries, is it not? You cannot approach them, but what of them approaching you? Tell your daughter the truth.”

 

**Darcy,**

**Come visit?**

**All my love.**

* * *

Christmas in the Tower was a lonely prospect. Tony and Pepper were in Malibu. Clint and Natasha had vanished with muttered comments about a farm; Bruce had sequestered himself in the labs, insisting he wanted nothing to do with the holidays; Jane, in a rare moment of humanity, had seen right through the to the loneliness he was trying to hide and insisted on joining him for some project. Darcy, insisting on the holiday off, had JARVIS monitoring them. Unfortunately, that left her with two unentertained godlings. After half a day of it, she gave up and shot Tony a text. An hour later, she herded them both onto one of Tony’s private planes; by nightfall they were in Norway.

 

It was nearing midnight when Darcy pulled the rented car into her mother’s drive, recalling the last conversation they had had.

 

_ “Did you fight?” _

 

_ “Not the way you’re thinking. It’s not… I’m not ready to show that yet.” _

 

_ Darcy had been eighteen, visiting her mother (who looked every bit as young as Darcy’s memories of her from her toddler years) in Norway during the summer before college, when her mother had dragged her deep into the mountains. _

 

_ Bryn had squared her shoulders and met Darcy’s eyes. “I cannot tell you everything, but I will tell you what I can. You will have the bits of your heritage and birthright that it is my right to give you… and I would have you know why I left as I did.” _

 

_ Darcy nodded slowly. “This have something to do with the fact that you still look twenty?” _

 

_ Bryn nodded. “Nor will you age far past it in appearance.” _

 

_ “Are you a mutant? ‘Cause that would be wicked.” _

 

_ Bryn smiled, just a bit. “I am happy you are so accepting of all, but I am not human in the slightest, dear one.” _

 

_ “Huh… so what’s all this heritage and birthright stuff, then?” _

 

_ Bryn took a deep breath and reached into the duffle at her feet. As she stood, sword firm in her grip, near translucent russet colored wings stretched from her shoulders. _

 

Darcy’s own feathers had turned out to be a deep brown, shot through with streaks of pure gold. The rest of that summer, and the two after, were filled with lessons in languages, flying, and fighting. At the end of the third summer, Bryn had presented Darcy with a sword of her own, perfectly formed and weighted to her, crafted in a metal Darcy never could quite identify.

* * *

Bryn saw the approaching car, she felt the cackle of ancient magic in the air, and she took a deep breath as she stepped into her courtyard, ready to face her past head on.

 

Darcy stepped out of the car, followed closely by two figures looming over her. She stepped from the shadows of the overhang. Loki’s eyes widened, emotion flashing across his face. Bryn stood, patiently waiting him out.

 

His voice shook when he spoke, and neither Bryn nor Thor were quick enough to catch him as he fell to his knees. “Brynja?”

 

Bryn surged forward to wrap her arms around his shoulders, his head coming forward to rest on her stomach. She stroked a hand through his hair. “Hello, my love.”

 

She felt him breathe deeply before releasing his hold on her waist and standing slowly.

He looked down at her. “How?”

 

Bryn considered before she answered. “Odin did not take kindly to me joining the battles before they were over. It was my job to ferry the dead to Valhalla, not to protect them from an early death. I did not serve my purpose, I broke his decree, and I was a foul influence on his sons.” She spat into the snow, bitter still, so many centuries later. “I was banished to Midgard. I was cursed never to seek out any Aesir. I accepted my banishment and I accepted my curse, for if it did not fall to me, it would fall to those who had agreed with me. It would fall to my fellow warriors and to my princes. I begged only one thing. I begged Odin that you never be told the truth of it, my love. I begged he tell you I fell in service. Your mother assured he granted it.” Bryn was breathing heavily, by the end, all her rage at the past brought back to the surface.

 

“Why? I would have come with you, had I known.” Loki sounded broken.

 

Bryn’s face softened. “Precisely. Being a Valkyrie was my all, aside from you. You accepted that I would always do my duty, that one day it might be the end of me, and that I would have it no other way. If you thought that had been the whole of it, you would have mourned and let it rest. If you knew the truth of my banishment, your temper would have gained the better of you that much sooner, your rebellion would have come centuries earlier, with far deadlier results. You would have come with me, but you would have reigned the fires of the Underworld upon Asgard first.”

 

Loki’s face hardened.

 

Bryn lifted her arm and slowly, giving him time to pull away, rested a hand on his cheek. “Tell me truthfully I am wrong, my love.”

 

Loki leaned into her touch, and whispered his response. “I cannot.”

 

Darcy’s jaw dropped. “You let me make the connection on purpose!” 

 

Bryn looked at her over Loki’s shoulder. “I hoped. A loophole in the curse, if you will. I was not seeking them by answering a question my daughter asked.”

 

Loki smirked. “Clever girl.”

 

“I am more clever yet, my love.”

 

“Are you now?”

 

“Valkyries are the carriers of the slain. Of some of our power, even Odin is unaware. Your father granted my request only at your mother’s insistence. I gifted her what I could for that…”

 

“And what was that?”

 

Bryn’s smile tightened. “It is better I show you. I am afraid the shocks of this night are not yet over. Come inside?”

 

Loki did not release his hold on her, but nodded in agreement. She led the way into the den, where a fire was crackling merrily in the hearth.

 

Frigga turned from the fire, and Bryn feared Loki would have fallen again were it not for her grip on him.

 

“What sorcery is this?” Thor boomed behind her.

 

Bryn looked over her shoulder at him. “I told you. Even Odin does not know all the power of the Valkyrie. We ferry our slain warriors. On occasion, if we are able to present a sure enough case to the Fates, we may ease death’s sting… for a price.”

 

“And what price did you pay?” Loki asked, his eyes still on his mother.

 

“I am curious of that as well, to be frank,” Frigga said softly.

 

Bryn looked at her feet. She always knew that this conversation would be had one day, and still felt no more prepared for it than the day she struck the deal.

 

A cool finger lifted her chin, and green eyes met hers. “Bryn?”

 

She didn’t realize there were tears in her eyes until she realized Loki was blurry. She blinked them away. She spoke softly, but made herself hold his eyes. “I did not know it, until I went to the Fates. I could not have known… only the Fates  _ could _ have known… had I lain with you that night, I would have begun my banishment with child. To save a soul requires a soul. If I refused you that night, if that child never came to be – the soul meant for her would be set aside for Frigga in her stead. I would have no part of you to accompany me, but death’s first sting would not hold your mother.”

 

“We… we would have had a daughter?” Loki looked amazed. “You would not have been alone?”

 

“It was worth it.”

 

Loki folded her into himself and let her cry. He held her through the sobs, through allowing herself to finally mourn the child that could have been, until Frigga wrapped them both in her arms and then he fell apart with her. 

 

What felt like hours later, everyone was settled in front of the fire, Darcy curled up in Thor’s lap in a massive armchair, Frigga with her legs tucked beneath her in an old wingback, and Bryn curled so tightly into Loki’s side, Darcy couldn’t really tell where one ended and the other began.

 

“You’re staring, Darce,” Bryn mumbled without looking up.

 

Darcy blushed. “It’s just bizarre… I’ve never seen you so relaxed and I have definitely never seen Loki with a genuine smile on his face. I’m waiting for the catch.”

 

“You overthink these things. Sometimes people just get their happy endings.”

 

Loki chuckled. “Surely you do not actually expect that, love.”

 

Bryn scoffed. “No. I don’t. But right now it’s nice.”

 

“It is.” Frigga smiled at her children.

 

“Will you return, Mother?” Thor asked.

 

Frigga shook her head, her voice edged with steel. “Not yet. I believe your father needs a bit longer to stew over his mistakes in recent years.”

 

“Will you come back to New York with us, then?” Darcy asked hopefully.

 

“Perhaps. You must understand, dear girl, that your Avengers are watched by Heimdall. Should your mother or I involve ourselves, Odin will be informed.”

 

Darcy shrugged, though she was clearly disappointed. “Guess that means we can’t stay here either.”

 

“No, we can’t,” Loki confirmed, his arm tightening over Bryn’s shoulders.

 

She huddled closer to him, which Darcy hadn’t even realized was possible. “It won’t be long, love. You know the truth now. And you know what interfering creatures the Fates are.”

 

“Mom…” Darcy started.

 

“I will be there when you need me, my girl, I promise.”

* * *

Following Christmas, Darcy went weeks where she couldn’t look at Thor without laughing. After week two, Tony had it. “What is the deal, Lewis? Did the big guy grow a tail I can’t see or something?”

 

Darcy looked startled. “What? No.”

 

“Then why the hell do you keep laughing?”

 

Darcy smirked. “Because he’s afraid of my mom.”

 

“Oooh, he got the shovel talk?”

 

“Effectively.”

 

“What the hell did she threaten him with?”

 

Darcy mimed locking her lips and tossing the key.

* * *

Frigga startled when she took in the image on the television in the kitchen. “Brynja!”

 

A ship hovered over the New York skyline. The camera captured the silhouettes of the Avengers against its backdrop, just waiting.

 

Bryn rushed into the kitchen. “What is it?”

 

Frigga nodded toward the screen. “Do you recognize that ship?”

 

Bryn turned. Then turned back on her heel and rushed from the room, cursing fit to make even the most creative soldier blush.

* * *

“What the hell are these things?!” Barton shot another alien, wholly ineffectual.

 

“The only thing that seems to be doing any real damage is Thor’s hammer!” Nat huffed.

 

“Well, it’s not like we can send all of them at him!”  Steve growled.

 

“Darcy!” Thor boomed.

 

All the Avengers head swiveled back in the direction of the Tower. Loki was looming over Darcy, ice blue with eyes snapping red and green magic sizzling at his fingertips, holding one of the aliens by the neck.

 

“Thank you, brother.” Thor breathed out in obvious relief.

 

Darcy looked up with a resigned expression on her face that quickly morphed into resignation before settling firmly on determination. “It’s time isn’t it?”

 

“Aye, my love. I cannot defeat them alone,” Thor answered, almost quiet.

 

Darcy nodded and stooped to the yoga mat bag she had taken to carrying with her every time the city had been attacked lately. When she straightened up, brown and gold wings sprouted from her shoulders, her casual jeans and sweater had melted into leather armor, and she was holding a rather intimidating looking sword. The determination was still etched into her face. With one smooth move, she drove the sword into the alien still dangling from Loki’s fingers. It disintegrated into ash.

 

“Uh… did my Wrangler just turn into Xena with wings?” Tony asked. “And actually manage to kill one of these things?”

 

Darcy looked down at her sword, then around the battlefield. “Everyone rally! I have an idea!”

 

“You heard the lady. Everyone to Darcy!” Steve commanded over the comms. Everyone rushed to comply.

 

“Our weapons aren’t working.” Clint all but pouted once they had assembled, Thor playing defense while they had their impromptu huddle.

 

“And I don’t think they will,” Darcy said.

 

“Yours did.” Clint side-eyed her wings. “And seriously, wings? What the hell, Lewis?”

 

Darcy waved him off. “Later. My sword isn’t made of anything you can get your hands on here on earth.”

 

“Alien sword,” Tony said dryly.

 

Darcy shrugged. “Something like that.”

 

“Point is, our weapons aren’t gonna put a dent in these things,” Steve spoke up. “There’s too many of them to just herd them at Thor and Darcy and hope for the best. So what do we do?”

 

A shadow fell over them. “Use Asgardian steel,” A new voice suggested, dropping two massive wooden chests on the ground in the middle of their circle.

 

The Avengers looked up to see a woman that looked like a taller, slimmer version of Darcy with bigger, darker wings hovering over them.

 

“Mom!” Darcy nearly squealed.

 

“Hello dear.” The woman flapped the few paces over to Loki and pressed a quick kiss right on blue lips. “Hello, love.”

 

Loki smirked. “Bryn.”

 

Bryn dropped to her feet next to the chests.

 

“Mom?!” Steve’s eyes goggled at the same time Tony let out an indignant, “Love?!”

 

She bent and opened one of the chests. “Darcy, be a dear and go help Thor and Frigga.”

 

“Frigga?” Natasha’s brow furrowed. “I thought she died…”

 

The Avengers looked up to see the Asgardian queen, very much alive, next to her eldest son, sword in hand.

 

“Long story. Later.” Darcy waved and took to the sky.

 

Bryn lifted a handful of long daggers from the top of the chest and handed one off to each Avenger before diving back into the chest. “Natasha, I assume you can make use of whips and throwing knives?” Bryn handed her two finely coiled rolls of steel, black leather handles gleaming in the sun, and two thigh sheaths, knife handles gleaming in rows. The Black Widow uncoiled the ropes of flexing steel and gave a few experimental flicks of her wrists before tying the knives to her thighs and offered Bryn an appreciative nod before dashing back into the battle with a gleam in her eyes.

 

“Steve, this shield will be weighted differently than yours, but I shaped it as similarly as I could. You should be able to use it as you use your own.”

 

Steve nodded. “Thank you, ma’am.” And then he was gone as well. 

 

Bryn nodded toward the second chest. “Clint, that one is full to the brim with arrows. They will be heavier than what you are used to firing, but far more effective.”

 

Clint dove for the chest and lifted the first arrow his hand landed on, nocking and firing it into an alien more than a block and a half away. “Oh yeah, I can work with these.” He grinned. “Lewis, your mom rocks.” He filled his quiver, then latched the chest once again.

 

Bryn looked up at Tony. “I couldn’t craft anything that would function with your suit without actually having your suit as reference.”

 

Tony shrugged. “I always wanted to try a hand at being a sheep herder. Shepherd? Whatever. Herding aliens toward the alien weapons can’t be that hard.” He turned to Clint. “Yo, Hawkass, want a lift?” He grabbed the chest of arrows in one hand the back of Clint’s uniform and lifted off without waiting for an answer.

 

Last, Bryn pulled out three long rods and snapped them into one longer piece and offered it to Loki. “Still fond of staffs, love?”

 

Loki offered a dark grin in return.

* * *

“Well, that was fun,” Tony groaned his way out of his armor, hours later. “Not. What the hell kind of alien can only be killed by one damn kind of metal that only comes from one fucking planet?”

 

“Language,” Steve mumbled absently.

 

“Kiss my ass, Cap.”

 

Showers were had and food was delivered by the time everyone gathered back in the common area.

 

“Yo, Lewis!” Tony called as he sauntered in.

 

“Sup?” Darcy asked without looking up from her phone.

 

Tony dropped beside her on the sofa. “I understand why the big guy is scared of you mom.” 

 

Darcy grinned.

 

“Now that the cat’s out of the bag, you gonna tell me what she threatened him with?”

 

Loki chuckled from his seat at the other end of the couch and smiled, genuinely smiled, toward Bryn, who was talking animatedly with Steve across the room. “There are not many who have befriended Hel’s hydra.”

 

“She’s friends with a hydra?!” Tony sputtered.

 

“And Hel herself,” Loki confirmed. “My daughter and my love are quite fond of one another.”

 

“Aye,” Thor said gravely as he approached the couch. “And were I to harm Darcy, she would drop me in its pit with naught but my bare hands to defend myself.”

 

“Couldn’t you call the great hammer?” Tony asked.

 

Thor made an uncomfortable face. “Not if she was holding it.”

 

“She can wield Mjolnir?!” Clint gaped.

 

Natasha lowered herself gracefully onto the floor, laughing. “I am officially yielding the title of scariest bitch in the room, Lewis,” she told her. “Your mom can have it.” 

 

Darcy blinked owlishly. “Okay, yeah, my mom is a BAMF, but she’s also, like, a huge goofball. She makes snowmen out of rocks in the middle of summer and wears MuMu’s into town so guys don’t hit on her and drags me out of bed in the middle of the night to have tea parties on the floor in front of the fire.”

 

Natasha looked at her, stoic. “She is practically married to the god of tricks and mischief, she can wield Mjolnir, she brought the queen of Asgard back to life, she’s friends with the queen of your Underworld, and apparently her beast as well, and she’s a fucking Valkyrie who was exiled for defying Odin.”

 

Darcy shrugged. “Yeah.”

 

Natasha smirked. “I’m okay with losing the title to her, so I’m yielding it before someone decides to try and make a competition of it.” She gave Tony a pointed look.

* * *

“You look confused, Tony,” Steve observed.

 

Tony frowned. “Loki.”

 

“What about him?”

 

“He’s… happy.”

 

“So?”

 

“So he’s laughing at the Tower and fighting with us around the world and he hasn’t degraded ‘mere mortals’ since before Christmas and he  _ joined Lewis in the prank war _ .”

 

“None of this sounds like something to be concerned about… other than the fact that you really don’t stand a chance in that prank war now.”

 

“Don’t remind me,” Tony muttered.

 

Steve shrugged. “You’re the one that brought it up.”

 

“Whatever. I just keep waiting for the other shoe to drop. For him to shoot into the sky one morning and claim another world domination scheme or something… like he’s just lulling us into a false sense of security.”

 

Steve shifted. “I get where you’re coming from, but I don’t think it’s gonna happen.”

 

“How can you be so sure?”

 

“I was talking to Thor and Frigga. Bryn is… ya know how Pepper is for you? Kinda keeps you together?”

 

“ _ Yeaah _ …”

 

“That’s what Bryn is to Loki. Just on a much bigger scale. And she’s so inherently good… it would kill her to see him go bad. And it would kill him to hurt her.”

 

“Huh… maybe.”

* * *

“Show yourselves, mortals!” A voice boomed through the Tower. “Where is my wife?”

 

Tony was a bit surprised that the glare Frigga sent toward the window didn’t shatter the glass.

 

Bryn appeared at the end of the hall in full armor with her sword in hand mere seconds later. “My queen?”

 

Frigga nodded. “Let this be done with.”

 

“Someone’s gonna want to get this on video.” Clint muttered as their resident Aesir loaded into the elevator.

 

Bryn stepped from the building first. Odin stood in the middle of the street, the Warriors Three at his back.

 

Odin’s eye narrowed. “You!”

 

Bryn smirked as Loki materialized at her shoulder. “Aye,” she said.

 

“What have you done?”

 

Bryn’s grin fell and she stiffened. Loki’s hand came up to the small of her back.

 

Before either could speak, Odin’s gaze drifted over her shoulder. Bryn glanced behind her. Frigga stood there, eyes blazing in righteous fury, with Darcy flanking her left and Thor flanking her right.

 

The queen’s voice rang clear, despite it shaking in barely restrained fury. “What has she… how  _ dare _ you? She gave me life… at the cost of what would have been… She ensured I lived, despite that it cost her dearly. And she has saved both our sons countless times. And  _ you _ dare to question… of all the nerve!”

 

Odin was pale. “Frigga?”

 

Frigga’s expression softened minutely. “Aye.”

 

“You… my love.”

 

“I am here. I am real.”

 

“How?”

 

“That is no business of yours,” Bryn snapped.

 

He spun back toward her. “I am –”

 

“You are the king that banished me from my home. You are no one. Not to me.”

 

Odin shook his head, clearly dismissing her as he turned back to Frigga. “Come home, my love.”

 

Frigga shook her head and stepped back. “Nay.”

 

Odin stepped forward. Bryn and Loki immediately moved in front of her. Bryn could sense Thor and Darcy doing the same. Odin looked furious.

 

Frigga shook her head and spoke gently. “Nay, my love… not yet. Your lesson is not learned. Recall what it is to care for your people instead of simply ruling them. Remember how to be a king on your own. I will wait for you, always. But find yourself.  _ Then _ you may seek me out. Return home.”

 

The scene faded before Bryn’s eyes and the Avengers common room materialized. She looked around at her family and up into Loki’s grim visage before laughing and kissing him soundly. “Your flair for the dramatic knows no bounds.”

* * *

“Hold up!” Clint shot upright in his seat.

 

All eyes turned toward the archer.

 

“Loki isn’t Darcy’s dad.”

 

“No,” Bryn confirmed. She had started wondering when that would come up.

 

“So who is?”

 

Darcy shrugged. “Dunno. She never told me.” 

 

Bryn smiled softly. “A young, brilliant, broken  engineer I knew briefly a couple decades ago in Boston.” 

 

Silence rang. Natasha’s eyes widened in realization within seconds.

 

Tony stood up, paced toward Bryn, paced back to his seat, then squinted at Bryn thoughtfully. He opened and closed his mouth a few times, shot a glance at Darcy, then back toward Bryn. Finally, he managed to actually form a sentence. “You ever been blonde?”

 

Bryn’s lips twitched. “Once upon a time.”

 

Tony flopped back against the cushion of his chair. “Huh.”

**Author's Note:**

> The Norwegian children's song Darcy sings:  
> Bake the cake sweet,  
> Dip it in cream.  
> First in sugar, then in water,  
> Then there comes an old man -  
> Who will prick the cake  
> With a little gold stick*.
> 
> Bake the cake sweet,  
> Dip it in cream,  
> First in sugar - then in butter  
> Then the cake will be good and soft.  
> And then everyone can taste  
> The good cake.
> 
> *or pin


End file.
